Systems and devices for photographing and/or video recording events are well known.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,305,182 B1 to Rhyne discloses a process for presenting photographs of an event for inspection, selection and distribution.
After stripping Rhyne '182's claims down to their bare essentials, one is left with something like a dressed up File-Transfer (FTP) website. Fundamentally, Rhyne '182's photographer is able to upload photos to a website, then guests may access this website from their own devices to download digital photos, place orders and possibly provide feedback and e-mail the photos to a friend.
Rhyne '182's electronic notification system provides a “transmission” to guests and sponsors alerting them when photos are posted to a file-transfer website. There is no description in Rhyne, however, of how to collect and organize accurate personal info from hundreds of people within just a few hours.
In Rhyne '182, the photographer “fulfill orders” placed through the website, but there is no claim of monetary transactions, coupons/vouchers or on-site credit card processing, i.e., there is no claim to actually selling or printing photos through the website. Moreover, Rhyne '182 makes a particular effort to ensure that people are NOT paying for photographs through his system, even going so far as to differentiate between the words products and photographs in his 24th claim.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,212,805 B1 of Banschick et al provides users the ability to “design” their own table centerpieces, which are then manufactured and shipped to them. However, this technology does not provide any of the knowledge needed to design a custom display system for use at an event.
Pending US Patent Application Publication number 2012/0321272 of Sikorski, dated Dec. 20, 2012, describes an accessory electronic photo album detachably attached to the front cover of a conventional paper wedding photo album for an event such as a wedding. The electronic photo album proposed by Sikorski permits guests to view still photos and videos of an event at a later date. Sikorski also describes the electronic photo album as having recording capability so that a user can record a greeting to accompany a gift being sent. Sikorski does not describe an interactive media centerpiece for generating, uploading and editing images in situ and in real time at an event with methods for processing payment, editing, printing, sharing or emailing images in situ directly from a tablet computer during an event.
Bob Gail's team have prepared a photo slideshow centerpiece from existing technology (in the form of digital picture frames), and positioned same on the table surface surrounding the centerpiece. The Bob Gail digital photo frames conventionally come with a wide range of capabilities and are made and sold by numerous companies including NIX, Kodak, HP and lulusoso.com. Unfortunately, most models require a power cord and manual updating of the photos on each individual device, and both of these attributes are impractical for this application. Those that might be battery powered only last for 3 to 4 hours at the most and while WiFi capable digital photo frames do exist, they rely on existing WiFi networks to function, so they cannot independently link with the more reliable cellular data or 3G type networks.